Man Charged In Death Of Astoria Woman

A Brooklyn man is facing manslaughter charges after leaving the scene of a car crash that claimed the life of an Astoria woman on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway over the weekend.

Harleen Grewal

At approximately 4 a.m. on Friday, police responded to a 911 call of a vehicle fire along the westbound BQE between Hamilton Avenue and Prospect Expressway. Upon arrival, officers spotted a 2007 Infiniti G35 sedan that was on fire and facing eastbound. After FDNY personnel extinguished the vehicle, a woman’s body was discovered in the front passenger seat.

Astoria resident Harleen Grewal, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene. An investigation by the NYPD’s Highway District Collision Investigation Squad determined that Brooklyn’s Saeed Ahmad, 23, lost control of the car and struck a concrete barrier, causing the vehicle to become engulfed in flames.

Video footage of the incident allegedly shows the car in flames as Ahmad hails a cab. Police later found him at Maimonides Medical Center, where he was being treated for injuries. He was arrested and now faces charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident, aggravated unlicensed operator and a speed violation.

Grewal’s family said that they needed more time before they would comment on the crash that claimed Harleen Grewal’s life. The victim’s mother told the Queens Tribune that they did not know the full story behind the incident and the family is waiting for the investigation to be completed before they would comment further.